Methods of and apparatus for air conditioning



May 29, 1962 R. w. COCHRAN 3,036,444

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR'AIR commoumc Filed Jan. '26, 1959 him 9';Mi /7 1;;

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1 0150? l4! COC/7f'df? INVENTOR.

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rates Unite This invention utilizes the conversion of kinetic energyinto heat and to the cooling effect of the absorption of heat by thereturn of static energy to materials. More particularly, the inventionis concerned with the Gough- Joule effect which relates to the heatgenerated by the stretching of an elastomer and to the absorption ofheat by an elastomer as a stretched condition thereof relaxes.Heretofore, it has been suggested that this phenomena be utilized inefforts to modify the ambient temperature conditions of air by forcingsuch air over elastomers as they are stretched and/or relaxed. In thepresent invention, the elastomer material itself is formed in the mannerof a rotary fluid impeller which may be elongated and relaxed as anincident to rotation Thus, fluid brought into motion by the rotation ofthe impeller may receive heat from the impeller as it is stretchedduring one phase of impeller rotation, and while an isolated fluid maybe cooled as the impeller is relaxed during the other phase of rotarymovement of the impeller. An important feature of the invention is thecondensation of moisture on the impeller during the cooling phase andthe transfer of such moisture by the impeller to an isolated fluid incontact with the impeller during the heating phase.

It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide amethod and apparatus in which the Gough-Julles effect is utilizedthrough the use of impeller blades of elastomer material for airconditioning. Numerous other objects, features and advantages of thepresent invention will be apparent from a consideration of the followingspecification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the present invention, a housing is provided, suitably baflied, topermit the isolated passage of one source of air over elastomer impellerblades as they are stretched, while a separate chamber is providedthrough which a separate body of air may pass as the elastomer bladesare relaxed. The blades of the impeller of the present invention arethin, flat elements of elastomer material radiating from a point whichmay be varied eccentrically with respect to the axis of rotation of anencircling carrier rim, whereby, upon rotation of the carrier, theblades of the elastomer may be cyclically stretched and relaxed. Theblades are, of course, tilted in an angular plane so that in theirrotation with the carrier, they will induce air flow. Due to the bathingof the impeller housing, an isolated body of the air passing over theblades as they are receiving tension have imparted thereto the heat ofsuch applied tension while a separate body of air passing over theblades as they are relaxed will deliver to the blades such heat as isabsorbed by the relaxing of the elastomer material. Further, condensedmoisture on the blades may be carried from the cooling zone to bedelivered up to the air of the heating zone.

In the drawings;

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of one form of the present invention,

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of that form of the invention shown inFIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the device of FIGURES 1 and 2.

Referring more particularly to FIGURES l, 2 and 3 of the presentdrawings, the numeral indicates a generally rectangular housing disposedin an opening between the wall portions 11 of a building. At one end ofthe tent ice v housing 10, a compartment 12 is formed by a perforatebafiie 13. Within the compartment 12, a conventional electric motor 14is disposed for imparting motion to a drive belt 15, which extendsthrough the apertures of bafiie 13, to drive a circular carrier rim 16.The rim 16 is supported by radiating webs 17 extending from a fixedcentral axle 18 mounted within a suitably supported bearing sleeve 19.

Fixed to the inner face of the periphery of the carrier rim 16, there isprovided a plurality of generally flat, angularly disposed elastomerimpeller blades 20. The impeller blades 20 extend inwardly from theinternal peripheral face of the rim 16 to an adjustable central rotaryhub 21, carried by a shaft 22. Shaft 22 is slidably arranged within aslot 23 through the outer wall 24 of the housing 10. The position of theshaft 22 in the housing slot is adjustably secured by a knurled nut 25.This arrangement is such that the shaft may be selectively positioned ata point of desired eccentricity with respect to the shaft 18 whereby, asthe carrier rim 16 is rotated, the blades 20 will be cyclicallystretched and relaxed as they rotate with the rim 16. It is to be notedthat the slot 23 extends an equal distance on either side of the axis ofthe rim axle 18. Thus, by loosening the knurled nut 25, the location ofthe shaft 22 may be adjusted. Such adjustment may be to locate the shaft22 in line with the axis of the rim axle 18 without any eccentricity, inwhich position the blades act merely as impellers without any stretchingor relaxing and hence, without any heat exchange to or from the air.When the shaft is shifted to eccentricity with respect to the axle 18,stretching and relaxing will occur to a degree determined by the degreeof eccentricity. Since the amount of distortion of the blades determinesthe amount of heat discharged from or absorbed by the blades, theadjustment of the shaft 22 may determine the degree of heating orcooling effected by the rotation of the rim for any given speed.Therefore, the invention contemplates the use of thermostatic means forautomatically adjusting the shaft in response to ambientconditions tomaintain uniformity of such conditions. 'As will be noted from thefollowing discussion of the bafliing, a shift of the shaft 22 from oneside of the axle 18 to the other will convert the operation from aircooling in one phase of impeller rotation to air heating in that phaseand vice versa. Thus, the device may be utilized as a heat pump or anair cooler by a simple adjustment of the shaft 22.

It will, of course, be understood that blades 20 may be of any desiredelastomer which responds with the Gough-Joule eifect to convert thekinetic energy of stretching into heat and to absorb the heat when suchstretching is relaxed. While rubber is one such elastomer, it has beenfound that synthetic elastomers in the nature of nylon, neoprene and/orother plastic materials may be more preferable since the energy requiredfor the stretching may be more effective in respect to heat generatedand absorbed than that of natural rubber. The invention, of course, isnot limited nor confined to any specific type of elastomer to be used.

As hereinbefore noted, as air is admitted to the zone of relaxation ofthe blades, its temperature will be reduced by absorption of heat by theblades and moisture may then condense on the blades. Such moisture willpass with the blades to the stretching zone Where it may be vaporized bythe heat of stretching and thus delivered to the air of that zone. Withthe device baflled in the manner hereinafter to be described to isolatethe zones, the operation may be one of cooling and dehumidifying and/ orone of heating and humidifying.

In order to direct the flow of air induced by the rotation of theimpeller blades 20 over the stretching blades on one side and therelaxing blades on the other, a transverse elastomer baffle 30 isprovided, extending across the housing and intersecting the axis of theshaft 18. Since this perpendicular bathe 30 is of stretchable materialand since its central portion is afiixed to'a non-rotary hub 31 mountedon the shaft 22, the adjustment of the eccentricity of the shaft 22through movement in the slot 23, will be permitted without disturbingthe'baflle effect of the member 30. For cooperating with the baffle 30,there is provided a second companion bafile 32 which is cut away as at33 to enclose the rim 16 and the impeller blades. The baffle 32 is hereshown as co-planular with the baffle 30, providing for an axialseparation in the housing 14} so that an isolated body of air may beinduced to fiow over the impeller blades as they are stretched inone-half of their revolution of rotation while at the other side of thebafile there will be a flow of a separate body of air by movement of theimpeller in the other half of their cycle while they are relaxing. Whilethe baffles 30 and 32 are here shown, by way 'of convenience, as in acommon plane, it is contemplated that they may be angularly related byrotary movement with respect to each other to compensate for a possibleloss of air between the isolated zones due to the inclination of theblades. If the degree of angular displacement of the bafiles equals theprojected width of the angledblades, air slippage between zones will beminimized. As indicated at 33, the housing is suitably louvered. topermit etficient ingress and egress of air. .Equivalentscr'eens orperforations may be utilized, so constructed and arranged as to preventadmission of dirt, dust, moisture or foreign matter.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention provides anovel, simple, efficient and effective air conditioning device andmethod for both heat exchange and exchange of humidity. It will, ofcourse, be understood that the invention, is not limited nor confined tothe specific structural details herein illustrated and that in thepractice of the invention numerous changes, modifications and the fulluse of equivalents may be resorted to without departure from the spiritor scope of the invention as outlined in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. An air conditioner operable on the principle of the Gough-Jouleefiect including a plurality of air propeller blades, extending radiallyfrom a common axis formed of elastomer material, each blade defining anair impeller surface tilted with respect to said'axis for moving air inthe direction of said axis, means for rotating said blades about saidaxis and means for stretching and relaxing said blade as an incident totheir rotation, said last mentioned means including the mounting of theother ends of said blades eccentrically of said axis of rotation.

2. The device as set forth in claim 1 in which means are provided forisolating air in contact with the blade while stretching from air incontact with the blade while it is relaxing.

3. In a device of thecharacter set forth, a housing, a

' rotary air radial blade fan for directing air in the direcfor rotatingsaid impeller, means for stretching and relaxing said blades as anincident to their rotation and battle means dividing said housing intoseparate chambers through which said impeller blades pass, said bafllemeans being so constructed and arranged as to isolate the air in contactwith the blades While being stretched from the air in contact with theblades while they are relaxing.

5. In a device of the character set forth, a housing, a rotary airradial blade fan for directing air in the direction of the axis ofrotation of said fan in said housing including blades formed ofelastomer material, means for rotating said impeller, means forstretching and relaxing said blades as an incident to their rotation,said means including a central mounting for the blade eccentricallydisposed with respect to the axis of rotation of said impeller, andbafile means dividing said housing into separate chambers through whichsaid impeller blades pass.

6. In a device of the character set forth, a housing, a rotary airradial blade fan for directing air in the direction of the axis ofrotation of said fan in said housing including blades formed ofelastomer material, means for rotating said impeller, means forstretching and relaxing said blades as an incident to their rotation,said means including a central mounting for the blade eccentricallydisposed with respect to the axis of rotation of said impeller, andbaflle means dividing said housing into separate chambers through whichsaid impeller blades pass, and means for varying the eccentricity ofsaid central mounting. 1

7. In a device of the character set forth, a housing, a rotary airradial blade fan for directing air in the direction of the axis ofrotation of said fan in said housing including blades formed ofelastomer material, means for rotating said impeller, means forstretching and relaxing said blades as an incident to their rotation,said means including a central mounting for the blade eccentrically"disposed with respect to the axis of rotation of said impeller, meansfor varying the eccentricity of said central mounting, and baflle meansdividing said housing into separate chambers through which said impellerblades pass, said bafile means being so constructed and arranged as toisolate the air in contact with the blades while being stretched fromthe air in contact with the blades while they are relaxing.

8. An air conditioner including a housing, a rotary air radial blade fanfor directing air in the directionof the axis of rotation of said fan insaid housing having elas tomer blades, means for rotating said impelleron a central axis, a variable mounting for the inner ends of saidelastomer blades whereby they may be eccentrically secured with respectto said central axis and a pair of bafiles dividing said housing in aplane including the axis of rotation of said impeller.

9. An air conditioner including ahousing, a rotary air radial blade fanfor directing air in the direction of the axis of rotation of said fanin said housing having elastomer blades, means for rotating saidimpeller on a central axis, a variable mounting for the inner ends ofsaid elastomer blades whereby they may be eccentrically secured withrespect to said central axis and a pair of baffles dividing said housingin a plane including the axis of rotation of said impeller, and in theplane of the variable mounting of the inner ends of the blade.

10. An air conditioner including ahousing, a rotary air impeller in saidhousing having elastomer blades, means for rotating said impeller on acentral axis, a variable mounting for the inner ends of said elastomerblades whereby they may be eccentrically secured with respect to saidcentral axis and a pair of baflles dividing said housing in a planeincluding the axis of rotation of said impeller, and in the plane of thevariable mounting of the inner ends of the blade, one of said bafllesbeing formed of flexible material and being secured to said variablemounting.

11. An air conditioner including a housing, a rotary air impeller insaid housing having elastomer blades, means for rotating said impelleron a central axis, a variable mounting for the inner ends of saidelastomer blades whereby they may be eccentrically secured with respectto said central axis and a pair of baffles dividing said housing in aplane including the axis of rotation of said impeller, and in the planeof the variable mounting of the inner ends of the blade, one of saidbaffies being formed of flexible material and being secured to saidvariable mounting, said housing having louvers for the ingress andegress of air on both sides of said bafiies.

12. An air conditoiner including a housing, a rotary air impeller insaid housing having elastomer blades, means for rotating said impelleron a central axis, a variable mounting for the inner ends of saidelastomer blades whereby they may be eccentrically secured with respectto said central axis and a pair of baflies dividing said housing in aplane including the axis of rotation of said the inner ends of theblade, one of said baffles being formed of flexible material and beingsecured to said variable mounting, said housing having louvers for theingress and egress of air on both sides of said baflles and motor 5means for rotating said impeller.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSYeatman Dec. 18, 1943 Sigworth Apr. 5, 1960 OTHER REFERENCES Institutionof the Rubber Industry, volume 1, pages impeller, and in the plane ofthe variable mounting of 15 162-167, June 25-Apri126, 1934.

